School Buses under RTA Scanner

Schools will be reopening this week and the city is busy with the preparations. The school management has been asked to furnish details about the bus crew and students utilizing the service by May 30th. Seeking data of students and bus drivers will help the officials in tracking unwanted incidents.

In order to ensure student safety, the Telangana State Road Transport Authority (TSRTA) has asked all educational institutions to seek fitness certificates for their buses.

“All schools must submit online the list of students travelling in their school buses. The enumeration must finish by May 30,” said B. Venkateswarulu, Joint Transport Commissioner, RTA. Driver details are asked to submit through RTA’s website.

The decision was taken as a result of the Masaipet accident. A school bus was crossing an unmanned railway crossing, when a train rammed into it. The accident calimed 19 lives, including that of 17 schoolchildren.

There are about 1,800 buses in the Greater Hyderabad area and about 8,000 in rest of Ranga Reddy district as of now. “Once the schools start functioning after the summer break, we will conduct special drives to check if all buses have fitness certificates or not,” the official said.

The fitness certificate that was provided last year expired on May 15th. The schools are contacted regarding the new directive by RTA. “It is an order from the State government, so we have to follow it. This will in a way also help us, though some schools might not want to furnish these details,” said an official from a private school,

“So far about 500 schools have applied and obtained fitness certificates (FCs), while the remaining is yet to apply”, said a senior RTA official. “Even if schools start operating from June first week onwards, the buses which do not have FCs cannot play on roads. Managements of the educational institutes have time till June 30 to apply and obtain the certificates,” he added.

“If they run the buses without obtaining FCs, they will be penalised,” said another RTA official. The schools will have to pay Rs.5, 000 if found operating school buses without FCs.

Till May 1st of this year, 391 cases were filed against school buses for various violations. School bus cases are increasing since 2012, indicating the need of monitoring.